TECHNOLOGY VISION 2016

Digital Trust

As security risks increase, so do opportunities to earn customer trust.

Overview

Just because you can,
doesn’t mean you should.

As each piece of the business world goes digital, opportunities to catalyze change and scale operations increase exponentially. Unfortunately, this increased ability to scale also brings increased exposure to systemic risks. As every digital advancement creates a new vector for risk, trust becomes the cornerstone of the digital economy. Without trust, digital businesses cannot use and share the data that underpins their operations. To gain the trust of individuals, ecosystems, and regulators in the digital economy, businesses must possess strong security and ethics at each stage of the customer journey. And new products and services must be ethical- and secure-by-design. Businesses that get this right will enjoy such high levels of trust that their customers will look to them as guides for the digital future.

In a digital economy where businesses can reach vastly more people, iterate quicker, and make faster, better decisions than ever before, trust attracts customers. But these same capabilities also amplify mistakes and make exposure to business risk more systemic. That could mean losing customers, market share, and value.

Boards’ recognition of new digital trusts has already spurred cybersecurity investment, with global spend set to top $100 billion by 2019, according to Gartner. Now, digital and data ethics are also becoming boardroom conversations.

TRUST AND CYBERSECURITY

In today’s digital business environment, trust is built on two important components: Digital Ethics and Cybersecurity:

TOWARDS DIGITAL ETHICS

Digital ethics should be key to any digital transformation. But it’s a new consideration for most businesses.

Currently, strategies align to a single vector: privacy. But that’s just one component of data ethics. Digital ethics is even broader, encompassing the operational processes where data is applied for real-world outcomes.

Data

Raw measurement or fact that describes something.

Information

When data is used and given context, it becomes "information."

Data Ethics

Moral governance of the integrity, handling, control, and provenance of data.

Digital Ethics

Moral governance of actions taken as a result of insights derived from the analysis of information.

REPUTATIONAL RISK

And ensuing public outrage will often play a significant role in forcing companies to change their data policies. But too often, it’s "too little too late." Transgressions erode hard-won trust. And that’s hard to win back.

Trust is only as strong as the security that keeps data out of the wrong hands. That’s why next-generation security systems are trust-based. They extend well beyond the perimeter to establish the trustworthiness of users and devices before granting access to network resources. In a world where levels of collaboration between humans and machines are increasing all the time, that’s crucial. It’s why leading businesses are using technologies from InAuth and Biocatch to verify that devices and their users are uncompromised when they connect to the network.

TAKE PREEMPTIVE ACTION

Unprecedented digital risk for businesses meets the need for new levels of trust. In an age of ethical digital dilemmas, it’s hard to know what to do now.

Without trust, businesses cannot share and use the data that underpins their operations. Businesses that get security and ethics right will enjoy such high levels of trust that their customers will look to them.

By the end of 2016, 70 percent of security organizations will have shifted their focus away from a perimeter mentality to advanced "contain and control" security.

What next? Responding to each trend requires setting in motion immediate and longer-term actions and plans. Read our recommendations here.

100 Day Plan

Over the next 100 days you should understand the current state of digital trust you’re exposed to and benchmark data points that can be improved.

365 Day Plan

Over the next year, you should have started to include provisions for strong digital ethics in your digital transformation strategy, have new security pilots underway, and have concrete plans to mitigate violations of customer trust.

100 Day Plan

Over the next 100 days you should understand the current state of digital trust you’re exposed to and benchmark data points that can be improved.

365 Day Plan

Over the next year, you should have started to include provisions for strong digital ethics in your digital transformation strategy, have new security pilots underway, and have concrete plans to mitigate violations of customer trust.

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